We are here in California safe and sound. It was a very long car ride but we still managed to arrive in one piece without any major fights or car troubles. The dogs have been troopers. They were very much freaking out as we got closer and closer to the move. I don't think they were thrilled about the long car ride either but they were just glad we didn't leave them behind. Now that we are here and are getting our stuff moved in they are finally starting to settle. Cordy I can tell is still stressed out. We were in such a quiet neighborhood in Tacoma and now there are lots of strange and unfamiliar noises to get used too - much more pedestrian traffic, buzzing bugs, other dogs in the neighborhood that bark. So of course she is barking at everything that moves and feeling stressed about protecting the family in this new environment. Seumas on the other hand, is perfectly contect and still wants to play fetch all day long - big surprise.

Enough about the dogs. I am sure you all are wondering about how Don and I are doing. We are having a lot of fun right now and loving our house. We were kind of wondering on the drive down here if the house was going to be anything like the images in our mind remembered it as. The best surprise was that the house was quite a bit larger than either of us remembered it being. So that is a bonus. It is an older house and we are slowly discovering some of the quirks. Like the fact that the kitchen countertops only have one single outlet. Or that there is no towel closet for the bathroom. Or that you have to walk through the spare bedroom to get to the office area. But in all we love the place and are having fun unpacking and setting things up. It has been two years since we have lived on our own without roomates and we are enjoying the process of unpacking and setting up house without having to take anyone else into consideration.

One of the biggest surprises upon arrival was discovering that our washer/dryer hookups were for a gas dryer instead of electric. So we found a replacement on Craigslist and will have to sell the one we bought in Tacoma before we left. As we were wheeling the electric back out of the house to store in the garage until it finds a new home, unfortunately it fell off the dolly and completely smashed my pointer finger up against the wall. OUCH!!! It hurt so bad but luckily I did not break anything. I did, however, have to run (physically, not drive) to the grocery store a half mile away and buy a bag of ice since we did not have any yet in our new freezer. After 24 hours the swelling and pain has finally gone down enough to be able to type. I am relieved because I didn't want to start my new job on Monday incapacitated considering I am on the computer all day.

The other thing about our old quirky house we were surprised to discover was that our very tall kitchen cabinets had these annoying childlocks on all of the upper cabinets but not the lower ones. It was the wierdest thing we had ever seen since kids can't even reach the top cabinets. So we asked our landlord if it would be all right to remove the child locks from the kitchen cabinets... at which point she informed us that they were not child locks, they were earthquake proof locks. Oops! So of course we opted to keep them. I guess us Seattle folk have a few things to learn about how things work down here!

There is so much more I could type, but alas there is still much work to be done and Don needs my help. Cheers!